


A Man Possessed

by dahdeemohn



Series: Sweet Disposition one shots [2]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Apologies, Communication, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 10:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6902416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dahdeemohn/pseuds/dahdeemohn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn has a lot of things to mull over as he thinks of a way to address Sami's concerns from long distance.</p><p>Set after Finn attacked Samoa Joe in Portland, OR on 5/14/16.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Man Possessed

Alone in his hotel room, Finn rubbed his temples, waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in so that he could finally fall asleep. Confrontations with Joe usually resulted in something akin to what Finn imagined would be like having a hangover the morning after getting into a bar fight with a bear from the night before. He glanced at his phone's lock screen, and could see that he had been tagged in a few Twitter posts already. Undoubtedly, videos were uploaded from what had transpired earlier that evening, and it was only a matter of time before he would be contacted by Sami. Thankfully, there was a three hour time difference between the him and his significant other, which meant that there was enough time to get some rest before the inevitable.

Sure enough, when he had woken, a text message awaited. It was a simple “Hey when you get the chance can you call me?”, but Finn knew all too well that it had probably been written, deleted, and then written over and over again before Sami finally committed to sending it. Finn could even picture it: Sami’s brow furrowing, nervously typing away and possibly looking to Dean for advice after the video had been watched, and Dean probably telling him to “just fucking do it already! Fuck, Zayn!”, or something to the effect, anyway. Despite all of that, Finn wasn’t ready to talk, at least not yet; this wasn’t going to be a quick conversation, and it was considerably more difficult to try to calm Sami down over the phone than it was in person.

Room service was ordered for breakfast, since at Finn couldn’t do this on an empty stomach, and he was in no mood to run into anyone as he pondered the best way to handle this situation. He needed a plan, talking points, and anything else that would keep their talk on some kind of track, something rational. Still, the looming question “why” would be brought up, without doubt. Why, indeed?

The last talk that Finn had with Sami was actually about this very situation. It had been just before Sami had left to tour with the main roster, and Finn practically had to pry it out of him to find out why he didn’t seem too happy after Wednesday night’s NXT episode. After a few rounds of “I’m fine”, Sami had confessed that he didn’t want to see Finn go up against Joe, how scared it made him; Finn was quick to point out that at least Joe hadn’t hospitalized him several times, he immediately knew that he had bruised Sami’s pride, and it killed him. It killed him when he saw Sami’s face drop, when he had helped Sami articulate how he felt about something, only to unintentionally knock him down just to make a point. Finn didn’t mean it, and Sami had tried to assure him that it wasn’t a big deal. There wasn’t enough apologies or enough declarations of love that could make up for the level of garbage that Finn currently associated himself with. 

For whatever reason, the logical conclusion was to assault Joe unprovoked, and Finn couldn’t say that it didn’t feel good. Weeks, even months, of pent up frustration had burst. Everything had been too much: too much time since Joe had started his path of conquest with no regard for others, too much time that Sami was away, too much time that Finn was without a title. How did Joe keep getting title shots, anyway? Was no one, not even William Regal, able to stand up to him? Why didn’t they just throw him out for being so reckless? There were too many questions and not enough answers, so Finn opted to do what every other jackass with a fragile ego and something shallow to prove in NXT did and took matters into his own hands.

As breakfast arrived, he chewed on a piece of toast and thought about William Regal’s disappointment, which was so much worse than anger. He thought about how the NXT roster had run out to keep him away from Joe, and how they all looked at him like everyone on the main roster looked at Dean, another thing that frustrated him to no end; while Dean was odd, he really was a lovely person with a heart of gold, and constantly subjected to unfair stipulations and got shafted more often than not. Finn worried if Sami was destined for such treatment, since the two were good friends, and whether or not he’d eventually have to deal with the same nonsense as well for himself. It made the transition look less appealing, to say the least, but it seemed like that kind of attitude had started to finally seep into NXT.

Finn’s phone vibrated, so he reached over to grab it and took a look, receiving another text message from Sami that was just a heart emoji, and he sighed, as a heart emoji was never simply a way to convey love. It was likely that Sami was getting frantic, had probably watched the video a few times by now, and maybe even had gotten word about the stipulation for his next match with Joe would be, despite not being revealed to the public yet. A heart meant that Sami was getting antsy, but didn’t want to push. Finn felt compromised, dread setting at the pit of his stomach that he’d get feisty again and say something in a way that he didn’t mean, but needing to try to comfort Sami and simultaneously knowing that his words and reasons for what happened weren’t good enough and were, in reality, awfully selfish. 

It had taken a while, but Finn had finally admit a lot of things to himself that he didn’t like. Sami, while being the shortest reigning NXT champion, was almost everything about NXT, and his absence left a hole that everyone worked their damnedest to try to fill. Finn had been the longest reigning champion, but he felt like he still couldn’t live up to Sami’s legacy, and the temptation to try to accomplish what his significant other couldn’t and try to be the first two-time NXT title holder had an allure that felt both right and wrong. His competitive nature made it awfully difficult to be impartial, and if he couldn’t be beloved as Sami or use his sexuality to his advantage and make some kind of an impact on -at the very least- sales, he could at least try to reach towards a goal that would set another record. It would also mean that he would have to stay in NXT for even longer as he defended the title, and he didn’t know if he had it in him to stay away from Sami for that much longer.

It’s why, during William’s reprimanding and the contract signing, that Finn had shouted that after Takeover, this was over between him and Joe. It had to be. He couldn’t pursue the NXT title time and time again, like Joe had done, because that particular diseased persistence and weight-throwing wasn’t a good example to future NXT stars. He couldn’t put himself through that kind of physical strain for much longer, and he absolutely couldn’t put Sami through that kind mental and emotional torture anymore. Still, he had to at least go for it, even if he didn’t accomplish anything as a result. Even if it was in a steel cage. He’d bring that up another time, maybe let Dean know first, just in case Sami panicked.

Breakfast now finished, he picked his phone back up and pressed on Sami’s contact. The phone only rang once before it had been picked up, and breathlessly on the other line, Sami answered with “Hi.” 

“Hi there,” Finn said softly in a singsong way.

“Did you just get up? Did I wake you up?” Sami sounded concerned. 

“No, you didn’t wake me up. I just ate.”

“OK.” There was a moment of silence. “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too.” Finn smiled. It was always the first thing that was out of Sami’s mouth when they talked on the phone, after greetings, and he was glad that at least they had that ounce of normalcy. Then he remembered the conversation before they had parted ways and frowned. “Sami, I’m really sorry about what I said on Wednesday.”

“Huh?” The scratch of a beard could be heard, which meant that Sami was thinking. “OH! Oh, don’t...no, it’s OK. I had already forgotten about that!”

“I haven’t,” Finn muttered. “I love you, and that wasn’t right of me to do.”

“I love you, too. It’s fine, really. You can make it up to me later.” Sami cleared his throat, and Finn braced for the next part. “But uh, I wanted to talk.”

“You saw what happened, didn’t you?”

“I did. I just…” Sami seemed at a loss for words, and Finn bit his bottom lip. “Why, Finn?”

“It was impulsive, honestly. It seemed like the right thing to do, after he’d been doing so many awful things to the rest of the roster to get to me. He needs to get the message that he can’t play by his own set of rules and not suffer repercussions.”

“He’s dangerous, you shouldn’t do stuff like that. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Well-” Finn almost spat out the last part, then bit his tongue. He was about to mention how Sami constantly had a target on his back anytime he was near Kevin, how Kevin had non-stop interfered with matches to assault him, the same man that had hospitalized him several times which scared Finn shitless, and how Sami had even been the aggressor at Payback and didn’t exactly have the moral high ground in this conversation. Then he thought back again to Wednesday, and while it was a discussion that maybe they needed to have in the future, nothing was worth hurting Sami’s feelings to get a final word in. Relationships were about love and diplomacy, and Samoa Joe may have been a strain in other areas of Finn’s life, but he wouldn’t allow him to get so far under the skin that it would have any impact on what he had built with Sami. “You’re right, he is. I lost my cool, and I’m sorry if I worried you. We’re working on something for my rematch clause, and then that’ll be the last of it. Promise.” 

“Thank you.” Sami sounded relieved. “I love you.”

“Love you, too. Gotta check out soon, so I’m gonna let you go.”

“OK. Have a safe trip back! Bye!”

“Bye, love.” Finn hung up and breathed a sigh of relief. Sami didn’t seem too upset, and he’d text Dean before news officially broke. Progress, even if measured in millimeters, was still progress, and he was willing to call a compromise for the sake of love a victory.


End file.
